Does Ireland still need an army?

Wolfe Tone · 08-11-2010 06:41PM

TBH I dont see how the army could actually defend our island against foreign aggression, at least conventionally. Maybe through a gorilla campaign?

Royal Seahawk · 08-11-2010 06:49PM

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

TBH I dont see how the army could actually defend our island against foreign aggression, at least conventionally. Maybe through a gorilla campaign?

Or a monkey one...

arybvtcw0eolkf · 08-11-2010 07:06PM

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Where's Mairt and Manic Moran?!

Well all our threats have been internal, and between cool political heads, good policing and the defence forces providing protection to the civil power's its not only by the grace of God that we avoided another civil war.

"Do we need an army" - IMO its a no-brainer, YES we do. And our history with the United Nations show's that other poorer nation's probably need our army just as much as we do.

scientific1982 · 08-11-2010 07:09PM

orourkeda wrote: »

In practical terms, what exactly does the Army do?

I have two mates in the Army and from what they've told me, not much.

PeterIanStaker · 08-11-2010 07:18PM

Wow, another DF - bashing poll. You never get them on forums.:rolleyes:
As I said before, its a tiny dept that comes in under budget as opposed to a black hole for money like the HSE or whatever. It just seems to be an easy target for the clueless.

blueshed · 08-11-2010 07:25PM

we need an army-navy-air force but only about half the size we have atm.
better equipped and trained and smaller numbers imo.

Misanthrope · 08-11-2010 07:42PM

We need a competent if small army to protect us from ourselves.If there ever comes a point where the Irish political system implodes taking the economy with it(or visa versa),we will need an army to prevent decent people from the mayhem and crime that would follow.Please don't suggest the Gardai as an alternative in such an incidence.

In such a scenario,not having an army would probably result in external intervention.

Not having an army as things stand would probably make some family in Limerick the top military force in the country.It might inspire and embolden the criminal element when they consider that once the Gardai are eliminated,there's nobody but a bunch of unarmed cowboys at Leinster House to actually stop them taking over completely.

Misanthrope · 08-11-2010 07:45PM

Natalia Mysterious Sash wrote: »

Well all our threats have been internal, and between cool political heads, good policing and the defence forces providing protection to the civil power's its not only by the grace of God that we avoided another civil war.

"Do we need an army" - IMO its a no-brainer, YES we do. And our history with the United Nations show's that other poorer nation's probably need their own army just as much as we do.

Fixed;)

Kev_ps3 · 08-11-2010 08:30PM

Of course we do. Infact we need one more then most countrys. What other country has been under foreign occupation for most of the last 1000 years?
Personally I would double or tripple our Army if I had the power.

LighterGuy · 08-11-2010 08:40PM

We need the army.
"...what if the king of england came in and started shoving you are huh?..." (Homer J. Simpson)

man.about.town · 08-11-2010 08:41PM

jd83 wrote: »

I don't think they will ever be scrapped who would risk thierlife diffusiing the weekly pipe bomb that some scumbag left lying around.

+1

Son Of A Vidic · 08-11-2010 09:18PM

Not only do we need an Army but we need to seriously increase it's strength and capability. There's a lot of people out there looking for work, so let's get recruiting! Our EU Overlord Olli Rhenn arrived in Dublin today to dictate and lay down the law to our govenment. We kissed our sovereignty goodbye when people said yes to Lisbon/the 4th Reich! Give us a decent Army to protect our Island from a Superstate monolith.

HavingCrack · 08-11-2010 09:26PM

PeterIanStaker wrote: »

Wow, another DF - bashing poll. You never get them on forums.:rolleyes:
As I said before, its a tiny dept that comes in under budget as opposed to a black hole for money like the HSE or whatever. It just seems to be an easy target for the clueless.

Sigh, I'm not bashing the defence forces, if you read my OP you'd see that I said is it necessary to have a conventional land army as we do at the minute? I gave Costa Rica as an example of a state that has done away with a standing army. Honestly stop criticising me without reading what I said.

yermanoffthetv · 08-11-2010 09:26PM

blueshed wrote: »

we need an army-navy-air force but only about half the size we have atm.
better equipped and trained and smaller numbers imo.

So do you think 4200 personell & 4 ships is adequate to serve the whole country?:rolleyes: (Gardai have 14,500 personell and they argue thats not enough) We dont have an airforce, the air corps is a component of the army with only a minimal training/transport capability. Training and equipment is already top class, and fair play to them for doing what they do on a shoestring budget.

mac22west · 17-05-2012 08:23PM

cock robin wrote: »

We have always needed an army, what we have is a defence force. The Irish defence forces are a total waste of taxpayers money, they are poorly equiped and most of them have never seen an angry man let alone engaged in any conflict worth talking about. They are a tool to be used by the state when bin service, fire service, prison service and such like go on strike. Having spent some time during the 80s in the 2nd Bat I can honestly say they are a waste of time. I'm as patriotic as the next man but we simply cannot afford the defence forces at this juncture. In the unlikely event of an invasion by whom-ever they would be lambs to the slaughter.

i cant agree with you more..i am currently in it and i find it by far the most frustrating job going..i went on holidays to denmark for a week and i got a call to come back home for guard duty..****in retards!..for a job where organisation is key they cant organise a piss up in a pub..i was put on a ilsw course and i know that its a waste of time..i will NEVER fire that weapon in ireland or abroad once the course is done..with all the courses you do you wil never have the chance to use your skills in the def force..making you feel totallyh useless..its a pointless organisation..and overseas,if you do come into conflict your sop is to turn the mowag around and head back to camp making you an idiot an an unncessary presence because your detering **** all...

LH Pathe · 17-05-2012 08:32PM

must spend a fùckload of time twiddling their thumbs pondering "what to do" it's one of tham zero to hero scenarios once you don that beret or whatever, sure it might even land em a woman titillated by teh word 'soldier' anyhow surely being stationed in the leb is more of a draw as a holiday than a job

- vanity project.

Agent Smith · 17-05-2012 08:38PM

who else would arm willie o dea?

LH Pathe · 17-05-2012 08:45PM

Sandbags still occasionally need distributing.. don't say you weren't saved.

HavingCrack · 17-05-2012 08:47PM

My 2 Year old zombie thread is back!

a fat guy · 17-05-2012 09:12PM

Shouldn't this be locked then?

For the record, I think we need a Defence Force.

Ireland would be an easy target for another country that wanted to attack mainland Britain or mainland Europe.

Not to mention that the Gardai aren't armed... We need people who know how to use guns.

And then there's always the fact that they can fill in for most public services when they're on strike, and do a good job at it too. And all for just 0.5% of the budget.

I think the Defence Force is essential.

funnilenough · 17-05-2012 09:43PM

during the bad winter we had 2 years ago,the army came out and cleaned the streets near where i live.sure they're a grand bunch of lads,so they are

Corkfeen · 17-05-2012 10:33PM

mac22west wrote: »

i cant agree with you more..i am currently in it and i find it by far the most frustrating job going..i went on holidays to denmark for a week and i got a call to come back home for guard duty..****in retards!..for a job where organisation is key they cant organise a piss up in a pub..i was put on a ilsw course and i know that its a waste of time..i will NEVER fire that weapon in ireland or abroad once the course is done..with all the courses you do you wil never have the chance to use your skills in the def force..making you feel totallyh useless..its a pointless organisation..and overseas,if you do come into conflict your sop is to turn the mowag around and head back to camp making you an idiot an an unncessary presence because your detering **** all...

Their selection process should be definitely improved anyway. :rolleyes:

But even though this is a fairly old bump.. The army is important to the country, the amount of times that i've read of the work that the bomb disposal unit have been doing is surprisingly high, in the past few months. People may not know what they're doing but it doesn't mean that they're not doing work that's good for Ireland's reputation etc.

Stinicker · 17-05-2012 10:39PM

Who else will fill the sandbags once we get flooded again?

Ghost Buster · 18-05-2012 08:33AM

Of course we do. What about the next time we have a big freeze. Remember how after only a few months they were mobilised in literally their dozens to clear the snow for over time pay?

bbam · 18-05-2012 10:04AM

Couldn't they be merged in to the Garda numbers so we had the best of both worlds. Plenty of guards, some trained to handle guns and the like, but it would cut down on administration overheads and be much more co ordinated.
Apart from when they support the Garda forces I see no value at all in having the army other then tradition.

Nothingbetter2d · 18-05-2012 10:10AM

our army is never gonna stop an invading country.... its too poorly equiped, doesnt even have a proper airforce that could even defend against an airstrike, it have 4 navy ships so one hostile sub would wipe them out in a day. We should just keep the bomb squad and the brinks allied protection squad plus a few for when we have visiting dignatures... but as far as the rest... no we don't need them.

CruelCoin · 18-05-2012 10:50AM

I remember that program on tv showing our "heroes" in green.
A single bullet went past their heads and there was mass panic. I've never seen such a poor reaction before.

"possible hostile contact ahead. 1 maybe 2 men, lets man the barricades with everything we got, and hope they just go away"

Completely ineffectual.

That our largest ship has 2 or 3 pea-shooters is laughable, and the recruiting poster shows them "assaulting" with pistols...

Our air force has nothing but training aircraft...Training for nothing more than to be glorified chauffeurs in the government jets.

And don't get me started on the ****ing equestrian division.

Were we invaded, i doubt we would have enough stockpiles of ammunition to last more than a few days of hard fighting.

In its current form, the army is pointless, useless and an enormous money suck.

Sappa · 18-05-2012 11:12AM

CruelCoin wrote: »

I remember that program on tv showing our "heroes" in green.
A single bullet went past their heads and there was mass panic. I've never seen such a poor reaction before.

"possible hostile contact ahead. 1 maybe 2 men, lets man the barricades with everything we got, and hope they just go away"

Completely ineffectual.

That our largest ship has 2 or 3 pea-shooters is laughable, and the recruiting poster shows them "assaulting" with pistols...

Our air force has nothing but training aircraft...Training for nothing more than to be glorified chauffeurs in the government jets.

And don't get me started on the ****ing equestrian division.

Were we invaded, i doubt we would have enough stockpiles of ammunition to last more than a few days of hard fighting.

In its current form, the army is pointless, useless and an enormous money suck.

My friends brother retired 2 years ago,he spent 20 odd years as an officer in the army.
His own words you will never find a cushier number than the Irish defence forces,the amount of allowances he pulled was staggering.
I think they all know it's a doss but like to look busy when a dignitary visits.

Kosseegan · 18-05-2012 11:15AM

Sappa wrote: »

My friends brother retired 2 years ago,he spent 20 odd years as an officer in the army.
His own words you will never find a cushier number than the Irish defence forces,the amount of allowances he pulled was staggering.
I think they all know it's a doss but like to look busy when a dignitary visits.

Army officers pay is crap. The allowances are few. 20 years as an officer would have only got him up to Commandant if he was lucky.

Sappa · 18-05-2012 11:19AM

Kosseegan wrote: »

Sappa wrote: »

My friends brother retired 2 years ago,he spent 20 odd years as an officer in the army.
His own words you will never find a cushier number than the Irish defence forces,the amount of allowances he pulled was staggering.
I think they all know it's a doss but like to look busy when a dignitary visits.

Army officers pay is crap. The allowances are few. 20 years as an officer would have only got him up to Commandant if he was lucky.

From when I remember he always had a new 5 series BMW,a load of holidays.
Short days starting at 8 finished at 4, got a masters in business plus a degree,everything covered down to a pencil,it's the add on perks they milk.
He was above captain and his pay was not crap,retired on a full pension early 40's and walked into a barristers job.

Does Ireland still need an army?

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